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It's fall. The air is fresh, the wind is cool, and everyone is snuggled up in their coziest sweaters, hands wrapped around paper coffee cups at Beantan Coffee. In this way, autumn announces its arrival, even to Yoongi, who sits atop the counter inside the café. Warm colours decorate the interior of the room; orange, yellow and red leaves are scattered over the walls and little plastic pumpkins sit in ornamental displays on each tabletop. The muted colours of the cooling weather casts the space in a newly softened light, and every so often when the door opens, the sound of the bell is accompanied by crunching leaves. If Yoongi looks at the menu posted on the wall, he can see the new addition of seasonal favourites: a warm and gooey apple crumble, the long-anticipated pumpkin pie, and most importantly - the infamous pumpkin spice latte.
To Yoongi, the mint flavour shot at Beantan Coffee, autumn means he gets to see Jimin again.
He sits on the counter in anticipation, the smell of coffee and freshly baked goods reaching his nozzle and making him feel refreshed and excited. He’s so pumped to see the pumpkin spice flavour shot again; to see Jimin again. It has been too long since he has had the smooth plastic of Jimin’s casing pressed up against his side, too long since he has found himself enraptured by the intoxicating smell of Jimin's unique aroma.
Yoongi has only overheard the incredible things about the taste of Jimin. Apparently Jimin is sweet and honeyed, but his unique hints of exotic spices can warm one from the inside. Yoongi has heard that a pumpkin spice latte is like a hug; it is inviting, calming, enveloping. Yoongi does not even know what a hug is and yet he somehow knows there could not be a more accurate comparison.
Funnily, these descriptions lie in sharp contrast to the things Yoongi knows he brings to the café table. Yoongi may be sweet as well, but don’t let that fool you - Yoongi is sharp; intense; invigorating. He will take you to Hong Kong with his mint flavour Tongue Technology.
Now, when our ancestors created the term starcrossed lovers, they probably hadn’t had flavour shots in mind. But starcrossed lovers is exactly what Yoongi considers himself and Jimin. A small drop of mint flavour beads at the end of Yoongi’s nozzle - a single tear. He thinks about how he will never himself experience Jimin. He is forced to forever have Jimin by his side, only in the fall, so close, but with the accursed plastic always separating them.
Pumpkin and Mint are just too different. Jimin; a warm spice that draws you in and holds you close, and Yoongi; a sharp hit that leaves you wanting.
No one would combine pumpkin and mint.
No one would combine Jimin and Yoongi.
No one would be that wild; that fearless; that inspired.
No one-
-until Kim Taehyung.
Now Yoongi is at first impression a little doubtful of the boy who flings open the café door bursting with the kind of wild energy that could make a tame horse turn into a wild stallion the moment he gets on it’s back. The subtle orange light of the setting sun behind Taehyung enshrines him in an ethereal halo. Taehyung, standing in the doorframe, glows in the evening light with a certain bold tenacity that makes the middle aged men of the café grumble under their breaths to mask the fear in their hearts.
Yoongi is so distracted by the man’s entire demeanor that he almost misses his order.
A latte with both a mint flavour shot and a pumpkin spice shot.
The space on Yoongi’s head where his ears would be twitches. He feels as if the world has suddenly shifted on its axis and time is somehow both going too quickly and in slow motion. The cashier’s eyebrows go up and the restaurant freezes. Yoongi can hear the whispers around him suffocating him.
Mint and pumpkin together?
Is this man crazy?
Is this man a genius?
Is he both?
The cashier walks over to the latte machine, steps unsteady and hands shaking as she reaches for the various levers and buttons that Yoongi can’t seem to make sense of right now the way his twist-cap head is spinning. Taehyung doesn’t seem affected at all. It is like he is the only solid object in the universe as the earth spins around him and spirals into chaos.
Before Yoongi knows it, and yet after a full eternity, the cashier reaches towards Yoongi, pressing down his head. He falls. He isn’t alone as he dilutes himself into the liquid of the cup. Hoseok, the café’s latte, whispers comforting words that Yoongi barely registers.
You’re finally going to meet him Yoongi.
You’ve been waiting for this your entire life.
You’re going to love him Yoongi.
And then Jimin falls into him and Yoongi really feels for the first time. Yes, Jimin is sweet, and yes he is warm, and yes he has a hint of spice, but there is more to him than Yoongi ever could have imagined. Jimin wraps himself around the cup, blindingly brilliant as he takes control of the entire drink and Yoongi is mesmerized. Jimin is more breathtakingly beautiful than Yoongi ever could have imagined, and if he had to breathe to stay alive, this is how he would die.
Taehyung takes the cup into his hands, as everyone stares at him in both horror and reverence. He pays the cashier and offers a kind smile and kind words. Yoongi barely registers Taehyung bringing the cup to his lips to try it, too caught up in how divine Jimin is, how, after so many years of wanting, he finally gets to be with him.
Taehyung takes a sip. The café takes a collective intake of breath. Taehyung blinks. The café blinks out of existence. Taehyung tilts his head to the side in consideration. The world tilts on its axis.
A pause. Time stops.
“This was my worst idea.” Taehyung says to himself, lips still touching the edge of the cup and grimacing.
He throws Yoonmin in the trash along with me.